Child Abuse: The Safety of the Home

Child abuse is now perceived to be a major social problem. It is only in recent years, however, that this phenomenon has become part of public consciousness. Social workers, residential workers, doctors, infant welfare sisters, police and others are apparently spending more of their time dealing with the problem. This increasing demand on the professional's time has been matched by the growth of material written on Child Abuse: Kalisch, (1978), provides some two thousand references, the vast majority appearing in the last twenty years.

The literature, however, is predominantly concerned with identification of the child at risk, the incidence of child abuse, and the establishment of systems dealing with the problem. Unfortunately very little has been written about a central and crucial issue: the safety of the home.